Making Sense of God | Week 3 | Does God Want Me To Be Happy?

Well, we are in week number three of a series we're calling making sense of God and so we're taking some of the complicated things about God and maybe some of the questions that we have about trying to figure out who god is, his character, his nature, and, and all of those types of things that can be somewhat confusing at times and taking those things and trying to really just, uh, unpack those and dive into those and start to answer some of the questions that, that we might have about God.

And so if you have a Bible with you, go ahead and open it up to Colossians chapter three this morning and, uh, your youversion Bible App, you can go there as well and follow along if you choose to do so.

We finally have a big boy podium here at the ridge and a Wesley will need a step stool to stand behind it from now on, but I might too.

It's a little tall, but anyway, we're not going to talk about that this morning.

We're just glad that you're here.

And, uh, excited about today's message.

Really been praying that that this would be something that really impacts you in a deep way this morning, and so one of the things that I think that happens to really distinctively mark us as Americans is really found right in the very beginning of the declaration of independence and if you're familiar with the declaration of independence, you know, how it opens up.

But just to refresh us, if we need to go back to history class for just a moment, it says this, it says, we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.

That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Now, that phrase there at the end of the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, we've actually, I think taken that phrase and, specifically that to mean that because I am free because I, uh, I, I have this liberty.

My freedom allows me to do whatever it is that I want in the pursuit of what will make me happy.

Well, that's what we've taken out.

And listen, I'm not a political statement.

I'm not a political statement at all.

I'm actually making a spiritual statement that we as Americans, Americans distinctively, that marks us, that when people think about Americans, they go, wow, they can do whatever they want because they're free and in the act of freedom we can say, I don't care if you like it.

I don't care if it's wrong.

I don't care if it's evil.

I don't care if it's good.

If I want to do it and it makes me happy, I'm going to do it because I have the right to do so.

I had the liberty to be able to do so now again, not to make light of what our country was founded upon because I do agree with that, but I don't think that what we believe to be happiness now is what our founding fathers actually meant.

Happiness to me, so explain that you see, because our pursuit of happiness now has created in us this appetite for destruction that is alternately disregarded.

What Jesus has meant for us and what he means for us is not our understanding and definition of happiness, but what he means for us is joy.

It's joy and our definition and understanding of happiness and the biblical understanding of happiness and joy is actually vastly different from each other.

And so here's, here's the thing, our endless pursuit for thing after thing, after thing, after thing that we hope will bring us joy ultimately almost always brings about the opposite of joy for us.

It brings about destruction in some other ways and so our pursuit of happiness, it, it drives us to fulfill this hunger and appetite for things that ultimately instead of actually giving us joy, ultimately actually rob our joy.

And so it ends up being happiness disguised as joy.

It's Kinda like, it's Kinda like eating Krystals, right?

Like you think that you want Krystals, all right?

And then you go get some Krystals and what you find out was supposed to be joy is not joy at all.

Amen.

He's like, but I liked some Krystals, right?

So you'd like to pay for some Krystals.

Do all we do, listen, all we do is driven by our desire and drive for the pursuit of what we hope will make us happy and think about it.

Think about what you did yesterday or what you did this weekend or what you did this past week.

There were some things that you happened to do yesterday or maybe some things that you're going to do today.

There are certain things that we do that is driven by the desire to bring us happiness and but in the end, what we find ultimately is that it doesn't really bring us happiness that at least that we hoped for because happiness.

Listen, this is what Oswald Chambers says.

Happiness is in our cultural way of thinking, in the way of doing things.

Happiness is based on circumstances.

If things are good, we're happy.

If things are going well, we're happy.

If we have the right things and they work and this and that, like all these things we were in, the relationship is good, the marriage is good, the house is good.

All of these things like these circumstantial things, our understanding of happiness says that if all of these things are alright, all of these things are well, then it's going to bring me happiness.

And so our chambers, he says, happiness depends on what happens.

However, joy does not.

Joy does not.

There's a such thing as a happiness that is superficial and one that only relies on circumstances And so by definition, when we think about it this way, the definition of this, there's something called hedonism, and this is what you and I are just by nature.

We are hedonist by nature.

A hedonist is a person that is, they're just their pursuit of joy.

In fact, let me give you the definition of John Piper says it this way.

He says that, that there is, a hedonist by definition is someone that believes that the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life.

And so you and I, through our nature, our fleshly nature, we are hedonist just by nature.

But what John Piper actually says, he says that there is a difference between just a hedonist and and what he calls a Christian hedonist.

And so if you are a follower of Christ, one that has given their life to Jesus, you have been saved by him.

And so you're a Christian.

He says, a Christian hedonist.

He says this, he says, are designed by God.

We, you and I are designed by God to be these Christian hedonist.

And so the definition is different and the way that he describes a Christian hedonist is like this, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in

him.

Now listen, because that's different from our circumstantial happiness.

Let me say it again.

God is most glorified in us.

In other words, God's joy.

What God is filled with, what God desires.

God is most lifted up.

He is most glorified.

He is most glorified

when we are most satisfied in him, not in other things, not in other people, not in other circumstances.

And so

Piper goes on and he says this, he talks about Christian joy.

He says that Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul.

Listen, produced by the Holy Spirit as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world, and so this is something that comes from God and it's not something that we produce ourselves,

although how often do we try to produce it ourselves?

Like how often do we try to produce happiness and what we hope will be joy?

Again...

Joy is not based on circumstances.

Joy is lasting, but how often do we try to produce this fake joy ourselves?

We do it all the time, right?

We think we think certain things will bring us an immense joy, right?

And so we go and we buy the house that we want and we love the house.

It's great until eventually we say, you know what we need, we need different kitchen and you

get rid of this when he gets some backsplash and you'd get some stainless steel appliances, a little marble countertops like I'm Kinda done with the kitchen that I bought when I first bought the house and I loved it, but I don't love it anymore.

I need something new or we say, you know what, this vehicle, it was great five years ago.

It's not great anymore.

Need something new and they get some Bluetooth and then he gets some bose audio in there and he'd get heated and cooled seats.

The heated seats.

Don't do it for me anymore.

I need cold seats.

Awesome.

Trade it in

because that will bring me joy.

Now I line right.

I ain't lying like we do that.

Don't get me wrong.

I mean cooled seats on a hot summer day.

When you go out there and sit on that leather, it's great.

Trust me, but it eventually goes away.

It eventually goes away.

All of these things, these are built and based upon circumstances and their their circumstantial, if you will, and so that brings us to today's question in this series called making sense of God and the question is this, does God want me to be happy?

Because we like to think to ourselves, well, God is a good God and these loving and he's kind and he's, he's caring and he is for us and he's not against us, and so he wants me to be happy.

Right?

The problem with that is that if we think that you get sideways with God because you think, well, I thought God wanted me to be happy, so why does live stink right now?

Why do I have to take the medication?

Why do I have to keep going to the gym and be unhappy with the way that my body looks like?

Why are these things happening?

Like I thought God wanted me to be happy and if he wants me to be happy, why am I not happy?

Well,

maybe it's because we've based our happiness and joy on circumstances and not what he really, truly intended.

Happiness and joy to be you see here, here's the crazy thing in the language of the Bible, the original language, the Hebrew and the Greek, both of those, the word happiness is interchangeable, happy happiness, rejoicing, enjoy.

They're all kind of.

They can all kind of work exactly the same.

There's really no difference between the two and so the the answer to that question, does God want me to be happy?

It's a complicated question with a complicated answer and we'll kind of break it down a little bit as we go, but the short answer is this, does God want you to be happy?

Yes, but not the way that you think.

You're not the way that you think, yes, but not probably the way that we think.

You see our cultural definition of happiness is is so vastly different from what I believe that God's intent was, and so what we will find over and over and over and over again in the scriptures is the Bible outlining a very simple thing and it's this.

It's that Jesus is better

then blank.

You put whatever you want to in that blank, but whatever you want to in it, Jesus is better

and over and over and over and over again, you go all the way back to the beginning of creation.

Even with Adam and eve themselves who gave them everything.

They had perfection in the garden.

They had everything that they needed.

They had everything that they could ever want.

They had complete and total freedom and dominion over everything, and yet there was a moment where somebody said, you know what though, I think I want that

because I think that's better.

Even though God had said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm telling you, you don't want that.

I'm telling you, you don't want that.

Right?

And then the thief comes along, Satan comes along, right and says, no, no, no, but you do.

You want that because God's trying to hide something from you.

You need that.

Like you gotta have that, and that's when it all went

well.

He just went right.

It just,

it just happened, right?

So it went down from there.

W, W, we'll go there.

And so everything was broken and shattered because of sin.

Jesus is better.

Let me give you a few examples.

Okay?

Psalm chapter four, verse seven.

So is this, it says, you God, God, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine a bound.

And so that, uh, the word whining and grain, that was a symbols for material abundance.

It's symbolism for, for wealth.

And he's saying you've put more joy in me than I could ever get from any amount of wine, any amount of material things, any amount of abundance of anything.

Got You.

Have given me more joy than having all of that.

Now

I don't know about you, but I, I mean, I love new stuff.

Like I love to, uh, I'd love to get a, a new hat and break it in or I love new technology.

And when the new iphones come out, like I, I love those things.

Or to get a, a new kayak or new things, whatever.

Like I love new things.

But I also have come to understand that all of those things, as much as I love those things, every single one of those things at some point is just a future item in a garage sale that I'm going to have that truck that I love when I bought it at some point it's on the trading block.

That house that we bought that we love when we first bought it a big enough anymore.

It's not in the right location anymore, but we loved it when we first got it.

And so all I'm saying is this is just like what the psalm is saying here.

He's saying you've put more joy in my than any of these

things that you could give me any of these things that are out there more than one ingrain of bound.

So David is saying that all of these things in this world are not better than the joy that I get from my relationship with Jesus.

So then Solomon, ecclesiastes did.

You don't have to turn there.

But ecclesiastes chapter two, he says this, he says there's nothing better for a person then that he should eat and drink.

And find enjoyment in his toil.

How God come on, how much do we love to eat and drink?

Right?

It's good.

Amen.

Somebody all were a little too excited about that.

I'm a little worried.

I'm.

It's like drink.

Yeah, we're not baptist.

It's okay.

Listen, he says, listen to as good as that is.

He says, this also I saw is from the hand of God or you see that the.

There's these common grace is that we all have like the taste of good food, the taste of good drink.

All of those are common graces that are given to every person on this planet, but at some point those common grace is like the way that a great steak taste or the way that a good cold drink of water taste like.

Even though those are common grace is given to all people.

At some point those things have to roll up to the giver of the grace to be reminded of where they've come from and how good they are.

Yet they are not better than Jesus and this is what a Solomon's getting out here.

He says this, all also I saw is from the hand of God.

Listen, he says, for a part from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment is so apart from God like it's good, but it's better when you realize who it came from and it's about the giver of the gift and not the gift he says, for to the one who pleases him.

God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to one who pleases God.

This also is vanity and a striving after when he's saying, if otherwise, if, if your attention is not set and focused on the giver of the gift, not the gift itself, like the joy that you have, advantages, it's gone.

It doesn't last.

You eat that steak.

Once you eat it, like you're done, like the, like the, the happiness ends.

It's over when we rolled that up to the giver of the gift.

And so psalm one more, uh, again, Psalm Sixteen, 11, it says this, it says, you make known to me the path of life in your presence.

If you highlight or underline anything, that's a really important phrase, he says in your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forever more and so joy, this joy that we're talking about, it is found in relationship Christ.

It's not found in relationship with him.

It's not found in relationship with her.

It's not found in relationship with our children.

As great as all of those things are, as much as we love those things, listen, they were not meant and given to us to be a replacement for relationship with Christ like we're not meant for that.

Okay?

And so what we want to look at today is sort of two fold is we open up Colossians chapter three.

It's how we obtain this joy and, and then how are we going to, to keep this joy.

And so Colossians chapter three, starting in verse one, Paul, he writes this, we'll just go a couple of verses and then I talked through it, but he says this.

Yeah.

Says if then you have been raised with Christ, meaning that, uh, for those of you who are followers of Jesus, those of you who have, have given your life to him, he's, he's talking to us.

He says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Now obviously we're all alive in here.

So what does he mean by, for those of you who have died, he's saying, for those of you who have been raised with graphs for you had died, meaning that the old you is no longer available.

It is no longer living.

The old you has gone, the new has come.

You had been crucified with Christ and raised to life in him.

And so you are different.

You are not the same.

He says, so for you have died.

He says, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

And then he says this, actually we're going to stop right there.

Stop.

So, so we talking about joy.

How do we obtain joy?

How do we keep that joy?

The first thing is, is if you're taking notes, number one, serious joy that sustains or serious joy that, that holds together cannot be found outside of a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.

We've kind of already sort of just laid the foundation for that.

But let me just dive into that for just a second.

This is about us knowing him and not just us knowing about.

Yeah, you see,

I think all of us can relate to this at some point where we have found ourselves in that like really just spiritually dry place, right?

Where we really kind of feel alone.

We feel a desolate, we feel, we feel like we're in this, uh, just this season of, of searching and wanting, but, but not able to just really gain.

And so it's, it's then that, that if we know him and not just about him will know that he's with us.

And then as, as Romans reminds us in Romans chapter eight, the for those who love him, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It's like in those moments if we really know him and not just know about him, we know that to be true.

We find that to be true.

And we don't just think it like we know it.

Uh, how many of us have been there?

You don't have to raise your hand, but you just think about it for maybe some of you are, are there right now or it's just a, just really dry and, and, and you're asking yourselves the question, do I really believe this about,

Oh God, am I really sure this is who he says he is?

Am I really sure that he's going to do everything that he, he promised me that he would do?

And so again, what this is what this is saying, what this is reminding us as well as Paul puts this year, is that that this joy that we seek, the joy that we're after, it's not going to be found outside of a deepening relationship with him, and so because God is sovereign and in control, what this reminds us

is that through it all, because of his sovereignty, when he can be trusted to, it's going to be okay.

No matter what happens, no matter how it turns out, even if it doesn't turn out the way that maybe we hoped that it would turn out, that's not what he promised, is that it's all gonna work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

Your definition of good and his definition of good might not be the same thing, but we've got to be able to.

It's kind of what Wesley was talking about last week, is where is God in our suffering and where's our understanding of that?

If we can get a firm grasp and affirm, hold on that understanding and then trust in God's sovereignty and the fact that he is ultimately in control and that bothers some of you because some of you are control freaks and you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I got to be in control of this like I'm going to handle this the way that I'm going to handle this and I'm going to do things the way that they need to be done and as God loves me and I am called according to his purpose, he's going to work it out for good.

God's good and God's law.

That's not the way that I know that's not.

It's not the way that it works, so he can be.

What we find is that he can be trusted and so true.

Joy, it's found in seeking and knowing the Lord intimately, like if you're married, like the way that you know your spouse or if you have children the way that you know your children.

God wants to be known in that way.

How odd would it be?

My wife and I, we'd been.

It'll be 13 years that we've been married this year and it would be so odd for me to go to my wife and say, Hey, what's your middle name again?

Right.

Well, I got better Bob and weave on that because my reflex is better.

Be Good because that ain't going to go well for me.

Or if my kids who are nine and seven years old, if if one day I was told my son was like, man, when did you become non?

I thought you were seven.

Alright.

That'd be like, what do you know me?

Right?

Like God wants us to know him even deeper and more intimately than that.

The here's the.

Here's sort of the.

I guess the, the crazy thing.

Well, let me, let me read this.

J I packer.

He's a writer and theologian.

He said this, he says, there's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God.

When you truly know God, you have an energy to serve him, boldness, to share him and contentment in him.

That's important.

It says, knowing about him is a necessary precondition of trusting in him, but the width of our knowledge about him is no gauge of our knowledge of him.

And so here's, here's what I find crazy is that sometimes when we are in these like really dry places spiritually or in, you know, sometimes we like to call it the desert, right?

Um, and we say, man, I just got, I just want to know more.

Like I want to know Jesus, I want to know what he feels about that.

So I want to know what he thinks about this.

And like it makes me laugh mostly on the inside because it's not good for me to be a pastor in life on the outside.

When people say this and then they go and I say, Hey, well have you, have you opened up the scriptures?

No what?

But we do it, don't we?

It's like, man, I want to know what God thinks about this.

He wrote about it like he, he kinda gave it to you right here.

It's like, really?

Yeah, I mean this, this, this, these are the words of God.

They're given to men that were written down, but these, this is the breath of God on in words and paper for us or a screen if you want, wherever, however you read your Bible, and yet it baffles me to see us struggle when God's like I gave it to you right here, gave it to you right here.

We've got to dive into it.

We got to dive into it and instead of going to, you know, some self help book or some friend that we call a friend who isn't a believer, who's going to give you really bad advice.

Here's the crazy thing too, is that God, he's not trying to play hide and seek with you when it comes to getting good, getting to know him either like he's not bobbing and weaving you, you know, keep wants you to know him.

Otherwise we would not have the scriptures.

And so Jeremiah,

he writes this, Jeremiah 29, 13, God says this to the Prophet and he says, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you.

Somebody.

You just need to hear that this morning that God will hear you.

He says that if you'll call to me, if you'll pray to me, I hear you, I'm listening to you.

He says, you will seek me and find me.

When you seek me with all of your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you in to exile, and so God is pouring himself out to the Prophet Jeremiah and he's just reminding him.

He saying, Hey, if there's this call out to me, if you'll just seek me, if you'll come after me, I've got such good things for you.

Okay?

And that was really important for them because in this moment things were not good.

Okay?

You got a backup a little bit.

Go back just a few verses.

We always forget this one, but Jeremiah 29, 10 says after you have been an exile for 70 years.

In other words, he's saying, you're going to be slave, you're going to be shackled up, you're going to be locked down for 70 years.

He says, after you've been in exile for 70 years, I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord.

Like, oh, I like that one.

That's on a coffee cup like that would like.

We know, right?

Listen, I can make fun of myself so we can.

We can laugh at each other.

Right?

But what will we do that it's like, I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord.

Don't forget what he says.

Right before that.

He says, I know.

I know the plans that I have for you after you've been in exile for 70 years.

Oh wait, wait, wait.

So you're saying that like things are going to be good.

I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord plans to prosper you and to do good for you and to do well for you.

Like what?

We love that part, but we forget the part where it says it's going to suck for a little while.

Like we forget that part,

it says, I know the plans that I have for you, and he says, so if you will just seek me, if you will come after me, if you will pursue me, if you will speak to me, I will hear you and I'm going to do well for you, but you got to come after me.

You gotta come.

You want this joy?

I've got some joy for you.

It's really, really good.

In fact, it's better than anything else, but you've got to come after me.

Quit running into the desert on purpose

and come after me.

So serious joy that sustains cannot be found outside of this deepening relationship with Jesus, and if we want that true joy, we go after him.

Paul goes on verse five, he says this, he says, so don't set your mind on the things that are below.

Set your minds on things that are above.

And he says, so what do you do with that?

Verse Five, he says, then put to death.

What is earthly in you?

The violence on time or the violent?

The Bible.

Sometimes it's violent, put to death.

He says, what is earthly in you?

Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and covetousness, which is idolatry on account of these things.

The wrath of God is coming in.

These two you want walked when you were living in them is said, by the way, Christians who were in this place called Colossus, you were once in this place.

Don't forget that says you once walked in these.

He says, when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away so he gets a little more specific.

He says, anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene.

Talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another.

Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

And so the second thing is this, is that we have to put to death what is earthly in us.

Notice that Paul says to, he says, to seek the things that are above and not the earthly things.

Again, showing us where our pure joy comes from.

And so what Paul does is he kind of gives us this list and he says these things, although we try to find joy in these things, what they're really doing is robin, your joy right out from underneath you, right out from under your nose.

Okay?

These things are just absolutely robbing our joy.

In fact, Jesus would say it this way.

In John Chapter 10, verse 10, he says, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

John 10:10

But I have come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly.

Okay?

And so he takes a contrasting statement, right?

He says, the devil, the thief itself, he has come to steal and kill and rob you of any joy that you possibly have.

He says, but the contracting parties, he says, but I have come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly.

So think about this for a second.

There are two things at work that, that are at work here.

One is I think that there are things around us that we can't see with our, with our eyes that are really just kind of contending for our joy anyway.

You might not notice it, but there are things happening around you and in you that you just can't see, but it's contending for your joy to rob you of your joy, but then the other side of that is that there are things that you and I, we give ourselves freely to the pursuit of happiness and the thief is going, thank you.

I'll take that.

Appreciate you just walking right into that spider web.

Matt Chandler, he's a rider and passenger, and in his book recovering redemption, he, he talks about this and he says, for example, he says, take, take these three

sins that are unfortunately way too common amongst us.

Laziness, lust, and anger.

So as we take these three things,

the, the, the thief or, or possibly even ourselves through our flesh, we're using these things to these things or are being used to make promises that cannot be kept.

Let give you an example.

You take

a laziness as an example.

Laziness makes a promise to us that cannot be kept because laziness says, you know what, if I could just rest and nap and not do anything at all, well then I'll have energy.

Right?

And we know what happens.

It's like I'm gonna take, I'm gonna.

Take myself a little nap and that little nap becomes a three hour snooze.

Right?

And then that three hour snooze turns into, wait a minute, I hadn't kept caught up on Netflix.

Eight hours later we've kind of walked through everything on Netflix, which then leads to eating a bunch of stuff that we really don't want to eat and probably shouldn't eat.

Right?

And then by the time we get done with all that, we're like, man, I really should've done something today.

But oh well, Netflix, Bam.

Right.

Well listen, I'm hear me when I say this because some of y'all are getting mad, but I love Netflix.

I'm not knocking Netflix.

I love Netflix just like everybody else.

Right?

But there comes a point.

There's a difference between rest and laziness.

You got to be tired to rest.

Some of the most lazy people I know are the most tired I know because laziness leads to laziness and we can become so guilty of that, but what we do is we say, I just need to rest a little more.

I just.

I've had such a busy week.

I've got such a busy week ahead.

I'm just today nothing.

Every now and then that's okay.

It's okay to have a nothing day.

I'm not telling you that it's not okay to have a nothing day.

Everybody needs a sabbath.

Everybody needs rest.

I'm not saying that that is wrong.

What I'm saying is is that if it becomes the norm, that's when it becomes laziness and it's making a promise to you that cannot be kept.

If you just continue this cycle, you'll have more energy.

You're not gonna have more energy, you just going to be more lazy and so it's making a promise to you that can't be kept in.

The thief is going.

Thank you.

I'll take that joy from you.

I appreciate that.

You just gave it to me easy.

Right?

So Chandler, he says there's something redemptive about being tired and worn out at the end of the day because God designed us to work and to not be lazy.

So how about lust?

Lust.

It lies to us and tries to make a promise to us that can't be kept because les says, you know what, you don't have that and you want it, but you don't.

You don't just want it.

You need it.

You got a habit.

That's what law says.

Less says you don't have something.

You need that

something and so because you don't have it, somebody else has it.

You better go get it.

It's okay.

You take it, you need it.

It's going to bring you joy.

It's going to bring you happiness.

Maybe it's a him and maybe it's her.

Maybe it's an it.

Whatever.

All of those things fall into that category.

If you don't have it and somebody tells you that you need it and that you got to have it.

That's called lust

and it's making a promise to you that cannot be kept because the promise is is that if you have it, you'll be happy.

You'll have everything that you need.

You'll have everything that you want, you'll have everything that you've ever desired in that, but all you're really left with in the end is guilt and shame, and then if you take that and you multiply that to lustful, a sexual impurity, the pursuit of have sex with someone other than your spouse, it lies to you to say that this is what will fulfill you, but will ultimately just destroy you.

Okay,

well maybe you think, well, you know what?

I'm not really a lazy person and you know by the grace of God have not really had to struggle with lust very much and so we're good there.

I'm good.

Let's just cruise on in.

Let's go ahead and land the plane pastor,

but then there's anger.

Then there's anger.

I will.

We could go on all day about this, but do you think, think, think about anger because you see the promise that anger makes to you.

Is that okay

if you will lash out in anger, if you will, Yale, if you will, scream if you will hit or smack or whatever it is that you do to to lash out in anger, the promise that anger makes to use that, if you will, to exact justice on this person and the way that you deem is necessary to fulfill whatever desire that you have to exact justice onto make yourself feel better than everything's gonna be.

Alright.

Let me ask you a question.

How many relationships have just been brought back together because of your anger?

Right?

No one has ever came to you or came to me and said, you know what?

I'm so happy that you got so angry with me in your anger and kindness.

This is all well,

right?

I can.

I mean sometimes you're just like, man, it feels good though to just like let it out.

Go to the gym.

You'll feel better.

I promise it'll be better for that way, but like, like we do that though, like, so we take

anger because it's making a promise to us that can not be kept because the thief is saying, you know what?

This is better, this is better.

And then he's just like, thank you, appreciate that.

Well, thank you for giving me your joy.

Every time that we've spoke Armand or every time that we just told it like is right, it never worked out perfectly.

And so we have to put these things to death.

Paul saying these things, they have to die.

We have to, we have to put these things down.

If we want joy, if we want pure joy in Christ, these things, they must die.

And so the one weapon that we have to combat these, to turn ourselves over from these is this real joy is the word of God itself.

And think about it for a moment, whether it be lust, anger,

um, whatever,

what if instead of turning to those things to find joy, what if we, what if we opened this up and went and said, you know what?

I'm going to dive into my relationship with Jesus a little deeper today.

Instead of trying to get something that's not ultimately going to bring me joy in the first place, maybe it's going to bring me momentary happiness, and we dove in here, Abraham, right?

He said this, he said, he said, the joy of Christ in the joy of the world cannot consist together.

A heart delighted with worldly joy, cannot feel the constellations of the Holy Spirit.

The one of these destroys the other, but in sanctified trouble.

The comforts of God's word are felt and perceived in a most sensible

manner.

But Paul goes on, close here in just a moment.

Paul goes on verse 11,

Chapter Three says this,

it says here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all, in other words, he's saying, this is.

This is for every person he says, put on.

Then he says, again, remember instead of putting our mind on the earthly things, set our minds on the things that are above, put these things to death and in light of that he says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive and above all of these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body.

Then he says this, he says, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

How many of us this morning as we sang songs this morning saying in such a way that had a thankful heart.

So if you you, you want this joy, you want this, you want this joy that Christ has for you.

I didn't put a third one here, but this is the third one.

Is this become an expert at how good God has been to you.

Become an expert at how good God has been to you.

I don't like the way that this necessarily sounds because it runs and it just kinda sounds funny, but it makes total sense.

So I'll say it anyway.

Gratitude changes your attitude.

Gratitude changes your attitude.

So think about it this way, about becoming an expert at how good God has been to you.

Think about this for a moment.

For those of you who are followers of Christ, what does he saved you from?

Okay.

What kind of life did he pull you out of?

What did he save you from?

Now there's a million things that we can talk about as he is saving you two something, but he has saved you from something and it's not element as elementary is just the fact that he has saved you from hell that's there and that's a big deal, but that's not like he has saved you from something he has saved you from a law.

Where would your life be had you not followed Christ and had you followed the ways of other people or maybe the ways of, of of family or the ways of of friends that tried to lead you in another direction and maybe that you look at their lives and the way that their lives had turned out and had you followed them instead of following Jesus.

Would you have ended up

there?

What does he saved you from?

I think about me and I, I think about even some of my extended family and I think about their lives and the way that they have turned out from them following pursuing happiness and not in the form of joy that Christ brings and I'll look at their lives and I think to myself, that probably should've been me.

Had I not followed Jesus.

You saved me.

From that he is saving me to something even better.

So we have to become an expert at how good God has been to us.

So to obtain and keep this joy, we set our minds on it,

him and we put to death the earthly things.

And then to keep this joy, we just marvel at his goodness, and maybe you think to yourself, well, you know what, that's that sounds really, really good, but everything around me is just really falling apart right now.

And if you set your mind on circumstantial happiness, the circumstantial things around you and just the circumstances, you're not going to find joy there.

It's not going to be there.

And even if you find momentary happiness for just a moment in a relationship or in a thing or, or in a vacation or a trip or an experience or any of those things, you're going to have a great time.

It's going to be awesome.

It's going to be really good for a little bit.

And then it's not.

It fades, but joy in Christ, it does not be thankful for what he has saved you from cs Lewis in his book, the weight of glory.

He, he, I think really sums this up well.

He says, this says

you.

And uh, we are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

So Louis, he paints this picture and it's like, for us, if we would have said, you know,

went to our kids and said, hey guys, listen, here's the deal.

Tomorrow we're getting on a plane.

We're flying down to Miami.

We're getting on this really big boat.

It's a Disney cruise.

It's gonna be so awesome.

It's going to be amazing.

Life is going to be all these things.

It's going to be so much interested slides and go like on the outside of the thing, it's gonna be so great I, it's to.

I'm so excited about it.

And our kids went, Nah, I'm good.

I'm going to sit here and play in this mud hole.

Y'All go ahead.

You'd be like, what?

What?

Why would you.

But this is better now.

No, I'm good.

Like this.

Like this gives me joy for a moment.

I'm good.

I'm good right here, but I got something better for you.

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I still like it right here.

How often do we do that?

What is it

Lewis is saying is he's saying our desires or our our desires or they're too small.

Like God wants more for us.

He has something better for us.

Again, Jesus is better than blank.

Whatever you can put in that blank.

It's like, why eat a well done, sir?

Loin from Walmart.

When God is going, I've got a medium cooked butter slathered fillet from ruth.

Chris right here.

Some of y'all going.

I like my steak.

Well done.

It's all right.

You enjoy that beef jerky.

You can get it in a pack for$5.

You know you have to cook it.

God's like, that's what it's like.

I got something better for you.

Why are you chasing after that?

Why?

Why are you looking for joy and happiness in him or her or that circumstance?

Your desires are too small.

Want more for yourself?

Because I'm giving you more

so

we have to go Jesus with all that we have, pursue him because it's worth it and put to death what is ripping joy out of your soul?

Put it to death because it's not worth it.

Become an expert at how good God has been to you.

I would say this if you know nothing of this joy because you've not given your life to Christ, that before you walk out of here this morning that you would take the moment to just ask Jesus to save you the poor, His grace and his mercy into you to get this, this joy that we're talking about, or maybe you find yourself in this desolate place where it feels like the joy has seeped out.

It's hard to find.

It's hard to grasp hold of, and so I would leave you with this.

Psalm 50 1:12 says this, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit should let that be your prayer this morning.

Just call out to Christ to say, restore to me the joy of what it means to walk with you.

To be loved by you, to have your grace and mercy poured out on me, restore to me the joy of your salvation.

I mean as we pray and sing this morning that we spend a few minutes in prayer, maybe just laying these things before Jesus, letting them before the cross and then after you do so to come and take communion, the body of Christ, of the bread, the the Jews, the blood of Christ, the picture of what he has done for us to bring us this joy.

God said to the Prophet Isaiah, that that God willingly and gladly crushed him on the cross.

That sounds evil and despicable in some ways.

What that means is that means that in God's gladness to do for us and to save us, Jesus willingly went to a cross to bring us this joy.

So we lay these things before his feet and then let's sing with thankfulness and glad heart.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.